“I drank my yogurt, Dad”

This is how she ate her Sunday dinner Fruit Loops. Every last one she took out of the bowl (in color order, all the yellows one at a time. all the greens one at a time, etc…) put it on the table and then ate it like a dog.

Then when we were loading up to leave for church she runs out and tells me, “The dog is coming!!”

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Got a Lite Brite at a garage sale for $1! Girls have gotten way more than $1 worth of entertainment out of it, I love it when that happens!!!

Two things about this make me laugh: Berkley’s eyes…and her blanket. She’s a little obsessive some days about wearing a blanket. This chip clip works great, she stores it on her book shelf and will bring me her clip and blanket. Then when it’s nap time she takes it off and puts the clip back so she’s ready for when she wakes up!

Case in point: more blanket-wearing…

Getting some Hat lovin’! Welcome home Hat!! We miss you!

Riding on the mulch!

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SP: Colin can count past 5, he can count a lot of numbers. {pause to think} Maybe all of them.

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SP: Is this the nail they put in Jesus? (it’s a railroad nail)

A railroad nail acquired this day:

Brian’s plane left at 5 am on Thursday for the Sr HCA mission trip to Guatemala. My mom’s plane got to KC at 10 am the same morning!

First stop (before even going home) was the Johnson County Children’s Museum. It’s been on my “to go to” list for a while, mainly because it’s free!

The fish were biting this morning.

But then the dolls got sick. Thankfully we ran into two doctors.

I wasn’t so sure about trusting this Dr. She has crazy eyes…

We saw a great two man show! One danced, the other played the xylophone! 

Did a little harvesting. It wasn’t as hard as they always say…

But we did work up an appetite and headed to Fritz’s. Brian and Beckham have been before, but it was another first for us! A really fun restaurant where a train delivers your food!

The sun was obviously blinding!

Day two: the zoo!

Berkley was fascinated by the monkeys

Sadie Piper’s favorite animal: the flamingo!!

Everyone up on one leg!!

Got some Mimi cuddles! AND A REAL SMILE!!

“Now be the watcher meerkat”

(Note to self, assign someone else to Berkley’s shift or else we are all goners when the lions eat us)

This is my favorite picture of the week. Berkley went and found that spot all by her self AND SMILED AGAIN!

No worries, she’s still got this smile too!

My mom left Saturday, so we used the weekend to celebrate early. The kids made these for grandmas for Mother’s Day, it was really a fun project!!

And I discovered that our good outlet mall (Legends) is practically on the way to the airport!!

And then I forked over the $11 for these. How cute is she with that pose??

Melissa is a high school and college friend whom I wish we lived closer to. I think we would be great girl friends and fun couple friends with her and her husband, Beau. They have amazing hearts for Christ and His kingdom and a great Christian worldview in all of their lives. Alas, we do not live close. So we stalk keep up with her and her family via their blog. (This is actually her flying to Hawaii to live there for 6 months!)

Back to my point. The book, Feminine Appeal: Seven Virtues of a Godly Wife and Mother (by Carolyn Mahaney), was not mentioned in her post, but since I respect her love and walk with Christ, I noticed her book. Now that I think about it, this story does make us sound kind of stalker-ish.

This book changed the way I see my role as a wife and mom. It was convicting and challenging and edifying. It’s not a self-help book, but a very biblical and practical expounding upon Titus 2:3-5

 Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good, and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled,pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled.

Carolyn Mahaney (CJ Mahaney’s wife) breaks down these verses into 7 chapters as she works her way though this passage. Here are the chapters and a few (of the oh so many) things that I loved in each one.

1. The Delight of Loving My Husband

“Scripture’s mandate to love our husbands involves far more than merely doing household chores. We are required to love them with nothing less than a passionate, tender, affectionate kind of love.”

She also reminds us that woman was “created to be our husband’s helper (Genesis 2:18: Then the LORD God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.), not our children’s mother. Certainly we are to love, care for and nurture our children, but this love is to flow out of a lifestyle that is first and foremost committed to helping our husbands. Our husbands should always remain first in our hearts and in our care.”

2. The Blessings of Loving My Children

“JC Ryle offered the following admonition, ‘This is the thought that should be uppermost on your mind in all you do for your children. In every step you take about them, in every plan, and scheme, and arragement that concerns them, do not leave out that mighty question, “How will this affect their souls?”‘”

3. The Safety of Self-Control

“It is erroneous to think that if our behavior is exemplary, then it doesn’t matter how we think and feel. What we allow to govern our feelings and occupy our thoughts will sooner or later determine our behavior. Sinful thoughts and sinful feelings lead to sinful behavior.”

“We are tempted to think we don’t have time to meet with God…Meeting with God each day is a way of acknowledging that we are totally dependent  upon His grace…When we meet with God, we can find peace  in the midst of trying circumstances, an eternal perspective where we have lost sight of the truth, and power to fight our battle against sin.

4. The Pleasure of Purity        

“In Romans 13:14 we read: ‘Put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.’ In response to this verse, each of us needs to ask: When, where and with whom are we most tempted to accommodate our flesh and gratify its desires?”

She also gives and expounds on “Three Principles for ‘Grade A’ Passion”: Be Attractive, Be Available and Be Anticipatory.

5.  The Honor of Working at Home

“Whenever we contemplate opportunities outside of the home, we must first consider what consequences they might have on our families…We can easily determine what we should do and how we should do it by asking ourselves: ‘What will most help my husband?’”

“‘Working at home’ means we are to function as the home manager- taking full ownership for all the domestic duties of the household.” I love this example she gives: “Imitating this woman’s model (Proverbs 31), Sarah Edwards, the wife of the eighteenth-century preacher Jonathan Edwards, managed her household with careful and thorough diligence. One day Dr. Edwards emerged from this studies and asked his wife: ‘Isn’t it about time for the hay to be cut?’ To which Sarah was able to respond, ‘It’s been in the barn for two weeks.’ Sarah created a world here her husband could fulfill his God-given duties without being concerned for the domestic tasks of the home. We should aspire to do likewise.”

6. The Rewards of Kindness

Carolyn discusses both hinderances to kindness (anger, bitterness and judging) and scripture’s solutions for them and also encourages us to be women (and gives practical ways to become) renown for praying, greeting, listening, encouraging and planning.

7. The Beauty of Submission

“In every New Testament passage that addresses the role of the wife to the husband, we find this edict to submit (Eph 5:22-24; Col 3:18; Titus 2:5; 1 Peter 3:1-5)”

“Submission was not our husband’s idea, and neither are they responsible to enforce it.”

Submission involves respect also (1 Peter 3:6). “The definition of the Greek word for ‘respect’ means to be in awe of, to revere, or to treat as someone special.’ Is that how we act towards our husbands? Do we respect them with our words, tone of voice, countenance and body language?”

This book taught me that at the heart of my role as a wife and mother is the gospel. Do all these things so “that the word of God may not be reviled.” (Titus 2:5)

I can’t encourage you more to read this book. She expounds so thoroughly and biblically on this text. Also, a side note: If or when you have daughters, read it with them. Teach them now what it looks like to be a godly woman. This not only prepares them for marriage, it helps prepare them in that life-changing decision of whom to marry.

Today I told him Andria was graduating from high school, buuuuut (and this part I added cause I thought it would make him soooo happy. Here is where we differ cause boy was I wrong!) that she would still be around. I explained she planned to take a semester off, that she knows she wants to serve God with her life but isn’t sure exactly what that looks like yet. And how great that is cause we will get to see her a lot!

He asked if he could not go to college too. I told him since he was a boy, God made him to work and provide for his family and that he would probably need to go to college so he could do that.

Here’s where it got touchy.

He started crying telling me, “but I don’t know what I want to do either!”

I told him he could do whatever he wanted, that he got to decide. This wasn’t enough. The crying didn’t stop.

Becks: But I don’t know anyone at college!

L: You might know some people. Morgan and Sophie and Sarah are all going to the same college, so they already know each other.

This was starting to be ok to him…

B: Will they still be there when I go to college?

L: Um, no. But you will meet new people! And you might go with people in your class.

B: But I don’t know what to do at college! How will I know? Where is college? I don’t want to go to college!

Oh my. Poor boy. I tried to remind him he was only 6 and he had a while. This didn’t help either.

Renae Vos: what do I do with him?!?

On a side note, we have been putting all the senior pictures on our fridge. SP loves this. But she has asked us of every. single. one. who took their pictures. Seems like an odd question to us. She’s really interested in knowing.

Sadie Piper loved having a real baby to take care of! She usually has to convince Berkley to be the baby. (I used to have to convince my younger brother Todd to be my baby too!!)

Made a stop at BuyBuy Baby and Sutton rocked this cool push toy. Then she got one for her birthday cause Lara thought it was so perfect!!

Sutton Button was PERFECT. Girl adjusted to a new place and bed and was awesome!!

Introduced her to Instagram!!

She went with me on my first ever Starbucks visit. I was hoping that my mind would win and my tongue wouldn’t like it just because it’s so overpriced. Wow, it was just as good as they say. Bummer.

Point: tongue.

Sad trip to the airport to let Lara go home…

(He’s been on the search for his Astros hat)

This one did NOT make me giggle, it was taped to the sugar jar. How was I supposed to enjoy my coffee now?!

SP sometimes has this face. Berkley is fluttering. Cause she has wings.

Jesus feeding of the 5,000 was this week in family worship. Brian got out 5 “loaves” (slices) of bread and hid the rest of the bag behind him. He was Jesus and just kept hanging out the bread until they were all overloaded! It was super fun!!

She does smile!!!